


What is 'Stockholm Syndrome'?

by Ice_the_Irken



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Stockholm Syndrome, Todd and John don't know how to talk about feelings, two emotionally stunted men try and fail to talk about their shared trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:55:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29961930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ice_the_Irken/pseuds/Ice_the_Irken
Summary: Hearing about his former captor's death should be a great relief to Todd... So why does he feel scared?
Relationships: John Sheppard & Todd the Wraith
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	What is 'Stockholm Syndrome'?

“Kolya's dead now though, finally shot the bastard.”

That was the sentence that started this whole emotional crisis.

Todd and John Sheppard had been talking out on one of Atlantis’s many balconies, and the conversation that was originally about the scientific work Todd had come here to do, gradually shifted to the day Todd and John first met, treading dangerously close to getting into rather... emotional topics.

Their voices became lower, slower, and more awkward the closer they came to actually discussing the more sensitive aspects of their first encounter.

They both knew it was a sensitive subject for the both of them, but it was one of the few things they had in common to talk about, and it was almost as if between each other was the only space they could feel comfortable enough to talk about it at all. They were desperate to talk about it and move on, but emotionally unable to do so. Getting too deep into it required them to be vulnerable, and being vulnerable scared them almost as much as what they went through.

This would happen more and more often the longer they knew each other and the closer they became. Bits and pieces in their conversations, long silences and averted gazes, an occasional sentence, an occasional joke, something that had to be explained whenever an innocent question required a much darker answer, the awkward silences, averted gazes, and heavy unspoken guilt and emotion whenever the scar on John’s chest became exposed. They discussed it, talked about it, and comforted each other all indirectly, which really is even harder than it sounds.

The Atlantis members let them talk alone out on the balcony. It wasn’t like they trusted Todd though, John had his radio on him, and every few minutes someone from the gateroom or one of John’s team members would ‘check in’ to ‘see how he was doing’.

They probably knew too, probably caught on, though no one ever directly said it; that would make it all too real.

It wasn’t very often that they actually deeply and directly discussed what happened and how it made them feel, and even then it was mostly just a few sentences or words and then one of them quickly changed the subject, or abruptly excused themselves.

It was getting close to being too serious, too real again, when Sheppard tried to close himself off and make himself feel safer by bluntly stating that the person who caused them so much pain was dead.

There was a few seconds of silence. John looked down at the empty bottle of beer in his hand. He’d drank it until the bottle was emptier than he was, and yet he still wished he had more...

John excused himself.

“Welp, I should go. I’ve got to meet... Ronon, for sparring practice,” he said, pushing himself away from the railing and heading inside. Todd knew that John was lying, and John knew that he knew, but John also knew that Todd wasn’t going to try and stop him. Todd nodded and let him go, choosing to stay out on the balcony for a little while longer rather than go in too. John was happy that he did.

Todd watched John leave, making sure he was gone before he looked back out to the ocean and let his breath hitch.

He wanted to ask John about Kolya’s death, as this was the first time he had heard about it, and having it suddenly dropped on him was like being knocked over by a sudden strong wind on a calm day, but that was the point where the conversation became too much and he wanted it to end; he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Todd never expected that the news of his former captor’s death would be the point that happened in all of these conversations where it all became too much for him.

He felt a strange clash of fear and relief at the news, and now that John was gone and no one was around to see, he could allow himself to feel it. His breathing became shallow and slowly got faster and faster, becoming panicked.

Kolya was dead, and he felt scared.

There was a sense of irony in one of them being the person that finally killed Kolya; it was fitting. Todd felt his mouth twitch in a smile at that, but it didn’t last long.

What scared Todd the most _was the fact that he felt scared at the news_. _Why_ did he feel _scared?_ He should feel _relieved_ that the person who had kept him locked up in that prison was dead, and that it was less likely that the Genii would _track him down_ and imprison him again, a possibility that had kept him awake so many nights. Was there something wrong with him?

What was it? Did the things that happened in that prison _completely_ shatter his _sanity_ , or somehow make him _care_?

No, no, he didn’t care for Kolya. It was good that he was dead. Todd reassured himself of that and calmed himself down. He took a deep breath, then turned around and headed back inside to the lab.

~~~

Todd clacked away one one of labs computers as he listened to the two other scientists share stories about their problems with their families. He wasn’t intentionally listening in on their conversation initially, but it was more intriguing than the work he was doing, and it wasn’t like they were whispering.

“Did I ever tell you about the time when I was a teenager and my 6 year old brother called me and told me how sad he was that his brother was leaving and how he didn’t like my girlfriend for ‘taking me away’ while I could hear my mother telling him what to say in the background?”

“No you didn’t; holy shit!”

“Yeah...”

“Why the hell do you keep coming back?”

“Well, she's my mother... that and Stockholm Syndrome."

“What is ’Stockholm Syndrome’?”

Both scientists turned around and looked at Todd upon hearing his question as if they had forgotten he was there, but of course that couldn’t be true; they would never forget that a member of the species that preyed upon them was standing in the same room as them. They were simply complacent due them having been working on this for three days without incident and the guards placed in the room.

The scientist who first mentioned Stockholm Syndrome spoke first:

“Well uh... Stockholm Syndrome is a rare psychological development where someone who is held captive begins to develop positive feelings for their captors. It was named after an event that occurred in a town called Stockholm. O-on August 23rd of 1973, four bank employees were held hostage in a bank vault during a robbery.

The robber demanded the release of another person from jail, a getaway car, and some money, and the police let him have that, but did not let him leave with the hostages in tow to ensure safe passage, so he kept the hostage in the vault for six days.

"However, the gunman was actually relatively kind to his captors; he draped a coat over one of the hostages who was cold, soothed her, and even gave her a bullet from his gun as a keepsake. He let another person out of the vault on a 30-foot rope when they had claustrophobia from being, y'know, stuck in a bank vault. By the second day, one hostage had called the Prime Minister and asked that the police agree to let the robber leave with at least her to ensure safe passage. She said that she trusted the robbers but were fearful that the police would act rashly and cause their deaths."

The other scientist looked at the first scientist like he was crazy.

“Man do you just _know_ this?”

“I had to do a paper on it in college, shush," the first scientist responded, then turned back to Todd.

"Basically, Stockholm Syndrome was a term coined as a study as to why these people favored their captors over the police. That's really all it was, but it has happened in a few other instances.

"Stockholm Syndrome usually requires a few things to take place: Trauma or shock, isolation, and a threat of harm or death that the victim or hostage truly believes, which is then not followed through with, which causes a sense of gratefulness for being spared death; it also helps to have the captor treat the hostage or victim with relative kindness. There’s also evidence to suggest that a person wants to believe their captors are good people in order to not have to deal with the reality of being kept in such a bad and-or dangerous situation."

The first scientist shook his head, stopping himself from rambling any further. He smiled nervously and adopted a guilty expression as he looked up at Todd again.

"I guess I misused it, sorry. It just feels like a hostage to that woman sometimes...” his voice turned bitter and sad at the last sentence.

"I see..." Todd said slowly, nodding to the two scientists. He quietly turned back to the computer, but he couldn't really focus on his work.

It made more sense now.

Out of all the Genii commanders and scientists Todd had been passed between, Kolya was the... least bad. The worst were the scientists that would perform horrific _experiments_ on him, or the first few commanders he was sent to that were in charge of _'breaking'_ him. The only things he had to endure under Kolya was captivity and starvation, plus the occasional electric shock.

Todd spent a lot of time worrying and wondering about various things, anything to keep his mind off his hunger. If Kolya died, or got sick of him, he would be transferred to another Genii commander, or worse, a Genii scientist, both of which held the possibility of being significantly worse than Kolya.

Although Todd hated and wished death upon all of the Genii commanders and scientists, he was worried about who he might go to if and when Kolya died...

Todd fretted so much over the bad that would happen if he died that it took him a moment to realize that Kolya was still horrible.

Trauma, isolation, a threat of death not acted upon, relative kindness, _it was all there_.

Todd had a name for it now, or at least knew that some people had gone through something very similar. That was the first step.


End file.
